10 Useful and Free Mac Applications to Run Events

No secret we love Macs and Apple when it comes to getting things done. If you are a member of the Apple tribe, here are few applications that will help in running your event.

We had a blast with iPhone earlier this year. Now the time to show you how your Mac could become an extreme productivity tool and get your events done.

10. Mindnote

Successful events are carefully planned. Mind Mapping initiates the process of planning. It helps in skimming ideas and identifying KPIs. Mindnote is a great tool to draw nice looking and effective mind maps. It comes with a free version which covers all the essentials. Go for it!

9. iGTD

If you are an event planner and never heard of Getting Things Done, now the time to catch up. The famous book started a series of dedicated applications. Most of them are extremely pricey and not worth the money. iGTD is a great Project Management tool and it comes for free, so give it a go.
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15 Free Ebooks About Event Planning

Photo by libraryman via Flickr

A little bit more indulgence. Hard days of researching to bring you effective tools for your event planning business or career.

Download them on your PC, ipod, pda and read them. I am sure you will get inspired and remember that every little bit counts.

Management

1. Practical Project Management
2. Event Management Tips and Guidance for Success
3. A Project Management Primer or “a guide to making projects work (v2.0)”

Planning

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5 ways to promote events you don’t know

Photo by luc legay

Many people lately have been asking me to promote their events on social networks. My response to most of them is this post.

Social Media and social networks now offer great potential to cut costs on event promotions. Social media and social networks are just buzzwords to gain your attention.

Well now that I do have your attention I’ll tell you how to do it.
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Let’s get back networking

On Tuesday, I hosted the first Linked in London meetup.

Great individuals, in a relaxed atmosphere talking about their business and networking.

This juicy practice has been stripped away from us planners, possibly we deprived ourselves of it.

Charging enormous amount of money for events like this and relegating networking to the coffee break made us feel like we were doing something illegal.

That is why probably most of us went on the Internet to get in touch with others.

The Linkedin Event Planning & Management Group has decided to bring back networking to the planners.

Next events include:

- 17 September San Francisco

- 30 September Austin

- 30 September Geneva

- 14 October Denver

Coming Up

Atlanta
Brussels
Boston
Chicago
Montecarlo
Dublin
Orange County – L.A.
NYC
Philadelphia
Seattle

All the events will come under the Spicy Networking Logo. (Thanks to Fabio Cannillo for the fast, reliable and professional design and Carmen and Domenico for the precious insights)

This logo confirms you are actually attending a free and user generated event.

Spicy Networking will collect all scheduled events, pics and so forth.

I can feel and read your excitement in the emails I am getting as I write.

The time has come, let’s claim back our right to meet!

Finally… Amiando!

I talked in the past about trying to find an open source, free and complete alternative to expensive EM software.  Well Amiando it’s the closest solution to that. They have released a new version of the already great platform. I must admit it kicks asses, to use an allegoric phrase.

Don’t get me wrong, I still think an open source solution would be great but these guys did exceptionally well.

Who should use Amiando?

Mostly those working with events up to 400 people, both professional and not. If you don’t want to bother yourself with messy accounting and looking for a straightforward solution, it does not get any better than this, should you organize a party, a meeting or a conference.

Flexibility

They created a module system in which you add the modules you need. That answers to one of the most painful issues with events. Every event needs different organizational tools. The platform is flexible enough to accommodate very different needs.

Ticketing

They started with the ticketing service and then expanded on that. They addressed the major issue with Paypal. A lot of organizers had troubles with using Paypal for ticketing. They keep Paypal as an option, but they developed their internal payment system in which they take care about everything, invoicing and International VAT charges included. Wow.

Web 2.0 and Social integration

Finally I don’t have the feeling of being in 1997 while looking at an online platform. These guys nailed the concept of integration with Social Media and Networks. You can actually add Youtube videos or Flickr photos. If you use Facebook you are pretty much used to that but in our field we are talking big news! You are actually able to share information on major social networking websites, get buttons to promote your event as well as

Support

There is a free of charge number to avoid mess ups.

Directions

Very easy just add the address of the location and a Google map.

Amiando Website